New Paint Job VS Respray

[ubernasty]

okay thread revival. So my beloved sterling silver e30 is dead. I'm already looking at an AW e30 and a Scwharz Black one but because I fell soo much in love with sterling, I'm thinking about repainting the car back to silver.

would AW be a better option to repaint over in order to bring out the OEM sterling shine? The guy at the paint shop told me that since AW would be the easier since it is a brighter color like silver.

Damn, i just read this thread and was about to make an insightful response with a lot of first hand experience of doing an all-over from yellow to a gun metal. But, black to anything is less difficult. Unless you prep (well) look to spend 2-3 g's for a worth while, non-fucked up pj.

[bmwstephen]

okay thread revival. So my beloved sterling silver e30 is dead. I'm already looking at an AW e30 and a Scwharz Black one but because I fell soo much in love with sterling, I'm thinking about repainting the car back to silver.

would AW be a better option to repaint over in order to bring out the OEM sterling shine? The guy at the paint shop told me that since AW would be the easier since it is a brighter color like silver.

[maximumangle]

prep is the biggest and most labor intensive part of doing paint..if its done right at least. but better prep = cleaner, better paintjob

[ben312]

do as much of the prep as you can yourself. my quote for full respray was about 1.5k. if i do all the sanding, prep, and primer than its down to 600.

[bmwstephen]

def. shouldn't do what this guy is doing

http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=78475&highlight=white+paint

[maximumangle]

^^that too...that and white

[Bimmersmith]

Also, red is one of the most expensive colors for paint.

[bmwstephen]

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i hate hacks. what bullshit. stephen, how much bodywork reqd? hell, drive out here and ill do one for you for 1k..or smewhere thereabouts

haha i appreciate your concerns. This is jsut in the planning stages now. I'm madly in love with my e30 and want to restore it back to its prestine and shine as I plan to keep this car my as long as possible. This is the first car I was able to purchase without any financial help from anyone else. After I secure my job (which I'll know about next week) I plan to start the restore, starting with the exterior.

To be honest, the only imperfection about the current paint is a long key mark on the the rear passenger side quarter panel with a few areas where the clear coat is completely gone. However because the paint is close to 20 years old, I know that when repainting it (even after blending it in with the neighboring panel), the colors wont match up so I was thinking about just doing an entire respray to make sure every panel is even


Edit: much appreciated on the info guys! especially the experienced painters in the house! I'm learning a lot

[DatUtahGuy]

My 2 cents (from an ex-painter), fuck it once a painter always a painter so yeah :D

When you paint silver, your sealer or "base" has to be a light gray color, so that the silver does not appear darker when it's done. To paint red, any red really, the sealer has to be black. If they prep but don't shoot sealer and just start spraying away, chances are that the red will be transparent, no matter how many coats they put on your car.

The way I would do it, I would sand the entire car, but not necessarily to take it down to bare metal, (that's just an added headache that you don't need) prime it, block it, make sure it's straight as an arrow, shoot black sealer on everything, jambs, underhood, etc etc, then 2 coats of paint and 2-3 coats of clear.

Simply put, a color change IS A MAJOR PITA, but if done right, well worth it.

[maximumangle]

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i hate hacks. what bullshit. stephen, how much bodywork reqd? hell, drive out here and ill do one for you for 1k..or smewhere thereabouts

[bmwstephen]

^ thats just messed up. his definition deviates way to much from what is considered a respray. I would say he was trying to half ass everything and repair the damage panels only. Receiving the full amount while doing only 1/3 of the actual work involved in a respray

[equate975]

I was looking for a respray on my car a while back and went to the "best" body shop in town. I talked to the guy on what I wanted done etc, got a quote written up (I don't remember the price) and I told him that I didn't want any fucking orange peel in my paint.

Well his idea of a "respray" was vastly different that mine. Basically they were just going to sand over the fucked up parts and blend it all together.... I told him fuck that shit basically and I wanted the whole fucking car sanded down and really resprayed.

they wouldn't do it. And thats the story of why my car isn't repainted currently.

[xwill112x]

my full respray / a TON of body work cost me 2500$$.

[bmwstephen]

well the person I was talking to is a family friend, and it was an idea i just ran off the top of my head. I was quoted 1.5k for the respray and close to 2.5 for the whole repaint

[woodisgood]

What were the quoted prices, out of curiosity? I am thinking of a respray as well..